Misrepresenting Mughal India as history of fights between Hindus and Muslims

By Bharat Dogra*
Several eminent scholars have warned time and again that false misrepresentation of history in communal terms can be very harmful for national unity, and it is very sad that despite such warnings such damaging trends have intensified further in some contexts.
Due to such repeated misrepresentation most of the battles fought during the years of the Mughal rule have become embedded in public mind as battles between Hindus and Muslims and people are surprised when told that Shivaji’s army had a significant number of Muslim soldiers fighting very bravely on his behalf and that all through Aurangzeb’s rule several Hindu nobles continued to occupy an important place in the Mughal court and army. The names of many of these Hindu nobles in Aurangzeb’s court are available in historical documents.

Earlier at Haldighati Hakim Sur and his Afghan soldiers had fought valiantly on the side of Rana Pratap. On the Mughal side there were a large number of Rajput soldiers led by Raja Man Singh. Still earlier at the battle of Khanwa, Mahmood Lodi and Hasan Khan Mewati had fought on the side of Rana Sanga against the army of Babar.From these examples it should be clearly known that the famous battles of the days of the Mughal rule were not battles between the Hindus and the Muslims -- instead the armies which fought each other were of a mixed composition. In fact there are even instances when some Muslim extremists had ganged up against Mughal rulers, and then the Mughal rulers had sent an army under the leadership of Hindu Rajas to quell such rebellions.
Describing this rebellion Prof Satish Chandra writes:
“The rebellion kept the empire distracted for almost two years (1580-81) and Akbar was faced with a very difficult and delicate situation. Due to the mishandling of the situation by local officials, Bengal and almost the whole of Bihar passed into the hands of the rebels who proclaimed Mirza Hakim as their ruler.
"They even got a religious divine to issue a Fatwa, calling on the faithful to take the field against Akbar. Akbar did not lose his nerve. He despatched a force under Todar Mal against Bengal and Bihar and another under Raja Man Singh to check the expected attack by Mirza Hakim.”
When the Hindu king of Bikaner was defeated by the King of Marwar, his family sought refuge in the court of Shershah Suri. When Humayun was defeated by Shershah Suri, he sought refuge with the (Hindu) King of Amarkot. Akbar was born here. Later in Ayodhya, Nawal Rai died fighting for Nawab Safdarjung.
Why do communal elements ignore such facts and also the facts regarding the liberal grants given by Muslim kings for the maintenance of Hindu temples, and the respect shown by Hindu kings like Shivaji to mosques and Muslim saints? They ignore also the reconciliation and friendships reached after some battles, for example the reconciliation reached by Jehangir with the son of Rana Pratap.
How could proud Rajputs and Marathas, widely recognized as big defenders of their religion, have continued to stay and serve in the courts of Mughal kings if the Mughal kings had been consistently against Hindu religion, as alleged by communal elements?
The very fact of so much cooperation between Hindu and Muslim kings and nobles testifies to co-existence in religious matters while alignments were made on the basis of political considerations rather than religious.
It is clear from the above examples that the history of Mughal India is not a history of fights between the Hindus and Muslims. Kings fought each other time and again, but generally there were mixed armies on both sides. Further heroes and villains did not exist in any one religion.
On some occasions, the persons who showed great valour and large heartedness happened to be Hindus, on some other occasions they happened to be Muslims. In fact the biggest heroes of this age were those who rose above all sectarian considerations to spread the message of universal love and brotherhood – men like Sant Kabir and Guru Nanak.
History is not just about kings and nobles, it is much more about common people. Among the common people it is the Bhakti and Sufi movements which made the biggest impact with their message of rising above sectarian and narrow divides.
A great saint like Kabir could very openly and courageously challenge those who divide people without understanding the essence of spirituality, and yet attract followers from all faiths in very large numbers. This shows that people were very responsive to such universal messages based on ethical values overcoming narrow divisions.
The fact that people of different faiths came out with unity at the time of the 1857 uprising -- with Hindu soldiers proclaiming loyalty to Mughal ruler Bahadur Shah Zafar and a nawab rushing to help the famous Jhansi ki rani -- is also indicative of the unifying trends in Indian society being more important than any divisive trends.
---
*Honorary convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now

Comments

Gujarat Information Commission issues warning against misinterpretation of RTI orders

By A Representative The Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) has issued a press note clarifying that its orders limiting the number of Right to Information (RTI) applications for certain individuals apply only to those specific applicants. The GIC has warned that it will take disciplinary action against any public officials who misinterpret these orders to deny information to other citizens. The press note, signed by GIC Secretary Jaideep Dwivedi, states that the Right to Information Act, 2005, is a powerful tool for promoting transparency and accountability in public administration. However, the commission has observed that some applicants are misusing the act by filing an excessive number of applications, which disproportionately consumes the time and resources of Public Information Officers (PIOs), First Appellate Authorities (FAAs), and the commission itself. This misuse can cause delays for genuine applicants seeking justice. In response to this issue, and in acc...

'MGNREGA crisis deepening': NSM demands fair wages and end to digital exclusions

By A Representative The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM), a coalition of independent unions of MGNREGA workers, has warned that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is facing a “severe crisis” due to persistent neglect and restrictive measures imposed by the Union Government.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Gandhiji quoted as saying his anti-untouchability view has little space for inter-dining with "lower" castes

By A Representative A senior activist close to Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar has defended top Booker prize winning novelist Arundhati Roy’s controversial utterance on Gandhiji that “his doctrine of nonviolence was based on an acceptance of the most brutal social hierarchy the world has ever known, the caste system.” Surprised at the police seeking video footage and transcript of Roy’s Mahatma Ayyankali memorial lecture at the Kerala University on July 17, Nandini K Oza in a recent blog quotes from available sources to “prove” that Gandhiji indeed believed in “removal of untouchability within the caste system.”

Targeted eviction of Bengali-speaking Muslims across Assam districts alleged

By A Representative A delegation led by prominent academic and civil rights leader Sandeep Pandey visited three districts in Assam—Goalpara, Dhubri, and Lakhimpur—between 2 and 4 September 2025 to meet families affected by recent demolitions and evictions. The delegation reported widespread displacement of Bengali-speaking Muslim communities, many of whom possess valid citizenship documents including Aadhaar, voter ID, ration cards, PAN cards, and NRC certification.

Subject to geological upheaval, the time to listen to the Himalayas has already passed

By Rajkumar Sinha* The people of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, who have somehow survived the onslaught of reckless development so far, are crying out in despair that within the next ten to fifteen years their very existence will vanish. If one carefully follows the news coming from these two Himalayan states these days, this painful cry does not appear exaggerated. How did these prosperous and peaceful states reach such a tragic condition? What feats of our policymakers and politicians pushed these states to the brink of destruction?

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

'Centre criminally negligent': SKM demands national disaster declaration in flood-hit states

By A Representative The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) has urged the Centre to immediately declare the recent floods and landslides in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and Haryana as a national disaster, warning that the delay in doing so has deepened the suffering of the affected population.

Rally in Patna: Non-farmer bodies to highlight plight of agriculture in Eastern India ahead of march to Parliament

P Sainath By A Representative Ahead of the march to Parliament on November 29-30, 2018, organized by over 210 farmer and agricultural worker organisations of the country demanding a 21-day special session of Parliament to deliberate on remedial measures for safeguarding the interest of farm, farmers and agricultural workers, a mass rally been organized for November 23, Gandhi Sangrahalaya (Gandhi Museum), Gandhi Maidan, Patna. Say the organizers, the Eastern region merits special attention, because, while crisis of farmers and agricultural workers in Western, Southern and Northern India has received some attention in the media and central legislature, the plight of those in the Eastern region of the country (Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Eastern UP) has remained on the margins. To be addressed by P Sainath, founder of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), a statement issued ahead of the rally says, the Eastern India was the most prosperous regi...

Counterview

Search This Blog